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The Kurpfälzisches Museum, i.e., the Palatinate Museum, in Heidelberg possesses some of the finest examples of archeological artifacts as well as superb examples of paintings, graphic arts, sculptures, and applied arts in the greater Heidelberg area. The museum occupies the Morass Palace, named after its first owner, the attorney Johann

Berlin is a city full of rich history, culture and diversity. It has witnessed many deep impacts, was severely destroyed during WW II and separated afterwards. But nothing might have influenced the city more like the Berlin Blockade and the Luftbrücke: From June 1948 until May 1949, the Western Part

A Holiday for Workers as well as Welcoming Spring! The beginning of May has long been celebrated across Europe as the start of summer, with festivities ranging from the street carnival-like atmosphere of Finland to Morris dancing in areas of England. In Germany, May 1st has been a public holiday

If you plan to study in Germany at the level of the Master’s degree, in some ways it’s easier than trying to apply as an undergraduate at the Bachelor’s level: If you are an English speaker, you’re in luck! There are more programs at the Master’s level that are taught

So you’ve looked at our previous articles on studying in Germany, and you want to do your Bachelor’s degree at a German institution. But how? We have already covered some of the documents you’ll need, such as getting your passport in order as well as making sure your educational documents

Do you feel tense whenever you see a young child playing video games and wonder if they even know where strawberries grow? You are not alone. More and more parents find themselves looking for a way to teach core values and environmental awareness to young children. They find a perfect

Made to Last – German Foundations Recent years saw a continuous rise in the creation of privately run foundations in Germany. In 2015 alone, 583 foundations have been created. As it is, the Bundesrepublik is home to a large amount of this kind of organizations, even though some of the

Germany is Reacting to Growing Population In 2016, Germany welcomed 2.136.954 immigrants and said good bye to 997.552 emigrants (https://de.statista.com/themen/46/einwanderung/). That left a net influx of 1.139.403 people mostly from other cultures (some were Germans returning to their roots) To guarantee a successful integration of all new citizens, the BAMF

Summertime in Germany The first modern suggestion of “summertime” came from a humorous observation by Ben Franklin. Franklin’s insight was sparked by Paris’s latitude being about 1,100 kilometers north of the latitude of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Franklin’s home town. According to The Economist, “. . . , he [Franklin] woke

Are you a Vereinsmeier? Wanderlust, Fernweh, Fahrvergnügen – there are many words in the German language that one can’t translate into English. Many of them also describe some basic German virtues. One you might not know yet is “Vereinsmeierei.” It represents the German specialty to organize themselves in voluntary associations

When it comes to celebrities speaking foreign languages, German isn’t one of the ones that might immediately cross your mind. We can watch videos of famous stars speaking Japanese, or rapid-fire Spanish/French/Italian with an interviewer and be impressed by their command of the language, but German-speakers tend to fly

We’re in the 164th year of this superb museum’s glorious history and, if you want to immerse yourself in German culture, regardless of the particular cultural or regional strain in which you’re most interested, e.g., Prussian, Bavarian, Austrian, Swiss, etc., this museum will provide you with the best examples and

Google Reviews

Michael has helped me immensely during my journey of learning. He very quickly identified the weaknesses I have and figured a way to solve them. His approach is tailored to the individual needs of the student, rather than a generic plan on how to stuff the head with information. He helped me organize the information that I already had from various sources, but was unable to put it into practical use.He gave me the confidence to start speaking the language. With his help, now I like the process of learning. And that is the most important achievement I had!

I had the opportunity to work with him over a year ago. Though we were not able to continue working due to my unpredictable job and travel, I found his method and training methodology extremely logical and intuitive. Though smartergerman services are relatively expensive than others in the market, the quality is many times more than worth it. Mr. Michael Schmitz has over 20 years experience in language teaching and summons all his expertise for the student's benefit. Highly Recommended.

6 years ago, I thought it would be a jolly good plan to move, from the UK, to Switzerland with a young child. Without a word of German. With a husband who didn’t have a word of German. I really didn’t realise the reality of learning a foreign language in a land that doesn’t actually speak high German.
So after 5 years of struggling with the local language schools and banging my head against the wall, I finally decided that I was going to get serious about language learning. I made it clear: this was make or break. I put my work on hold, purely to focus on German learning.
Michael was a life saver. This is something to understand about working with Michael: you are not simply employing a German Teacher - you are employing a coach. Michael had to undo years of anxiety at failing to actually learn the language, years of misunderstandings, frustrations and generally beating myself up. So much was in the way of being able to look at the German language with a clear head and not in sheer panic!!!
So after telling myself for years that I could never, ever get to B1 standard, I got 84.5% on the exam!!! And here is the crucial thing: Michael has changed my way of learning languages for life. I now have a system in which I can continue to learn German, not as a rush to the next exam (although goals are good!), but as a life long learning process which I enjoy. Yes….actually enjoy learning German - who would have thought that was possible?!!……

I found Michael & smarterGerman in September 2016 upon realizing I need to start working on my German fluency to be eligible for a couple of International Business Master's degrees I am considering. My main reasons for having decided to work with Michael were a combination of the flexible scheduling (as I'm in my last year of undergrad) and that he had successfully taught numerous students from zero to B1 in a short period of time. Full disclosure, I've had limited German studies in the past at lower levels (university course in 2011, Goethe A2.3 in spring 2014) while struggling along the way, but no active learning during the past two plus years. Having met roughly a dozen times between the end of September and my exam date in December, I'm happy to say that I passed my B1 Goethe Exam with an overall average of 80.25%! Keep in mind, I had to dedicate time around my lessons to the homework and exam preparations, but it was still the most efficient time I've spent learning German. Given my experience, I can highly recommend working with Michael to all who are serious about achieving results quickly.

I began learning with Michael at the beginning of July 2016 and at the time I had only sat my A2 exam a few months earlier and so my goal was to reach B1 with Michael by October. After a short chat with Michael, he upgraded my goal to B2, which was to be achieved in the same time frame. I didn't believe that it was possible when we first began our work together but after only 11 45 minute long sessions, and one hour per week conversation training with another teacher, I sat and passed my B2 exam - including a 100% pass mark in the oral section. I couldn't have done it without Michael's confidence, motivational skills, and ability to root out mistakes and explain things clearly using my mother tongue. His methods (learning cycle) really are fool proof if you follow them. Aim high and Michael will help you reach your goal as long as you're ready to work with it. Best value for money yet!

What a wonderful learning tool Michael has put together! The text of "Die Tote Frau" is fairly simple (for the most part), but he teaches you a new way of figuring out the not-so-simple parts, ways to learn how to read German texts without necessarily knowing all of the words. When I learned Latin way back in high school, I was able to quickly figure out the meanings of many difficult English words, and that was tremendously helpful. In this series, Michael makes it just as easy, using techniques that allow the reader to spot recognizable words within larger contexts. It's highly analytical, which I appreciate, although others may find that they don't necessarily want to go "into the weeds," as they say. Even so, if you stick with it, you'll be glad you did. I often found myself reading a passage, and thinking, "hey, that's an interesting phrase, I wonder where that came from." Sure enough, as if Michael and I were on the same page (figuratively and literally), he would invariably get to that sentence and say, "this is an interesting construction, right here." You gotta love that. Oh, and I should mention - it's quite inexpensive, relative to what you get in return. Highly recommended!

I have recently purchased the german article buster app and have found that with a little practice (tutorials given on the app) the baffling allocation of der, die and das for nouns is made easier by simply using your own imagination.
I have found the app to easy to use and much better than staring a long list of words which can be very intimidating.

I have been trying to learn German for more years than I care to admit. I've used Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Memrise and I can even go back as far as Linguaphone tapes! I have attended many German classes including the Goethe Institut in Dublin, Jerusalem, Munich. It was the awful experience I had at the GI in Munchen that drove me to seek out something else. That is when I found Michael.
He is passionate about giving his students the best chance to succeed. His videos are short but do not underestimate their impact. But above all it works.
If you are trying to learn German, especially if you want to site B1 or B2 exams I would recommend you give this a try. I also wish you every success :-)
Shay

This is not SMARTER German, but rather SMARTEST German :)))
The learning cycle is purely genius - building on advanced learning and memory techniques. The grammar videos and exercises are by far the best I have ever seen - ultra clear, memorable, and fun to do.
I definitely reached a new level in German I never thought I would, as well as easily passed the dreadful B1 exam ??? :) THANK YOU!!!Finally, I had great fun doing it, and highly appreciated and enjoyed the humorous, intelligent and refreshing approach to teaching.CLEARLY THE BEST, AND WELL WORTH THE PRICE!

I highly recommend Michael and his team for learning German. His learning methods are unique and effective. He is very prompt in answering any questions and helping you practice writing and speaking skills. He focuses on the areas you need most improvement and makes learning German fun :).

I never attended a live course with Michael but I bought his grammar book. I write him all the time when I have a technical problem and he always finds time to answer me. I printed his book and love working on it. I make all the exercices and I feel that my methods before were bad. I lost so much time in the past. We should all begin by his book. Thank you Michael

I just began learning with smarter German and so far I find it very helpful.I think the programme that Michael Schmitz created is engaging.The approach is more practical and that works for me better than intensive classes I used to take. There is still much material that I need to go through, but so far I would highly recommend it.You get also several tips how to make your German language learning easier.

I have so many positive comments about Smarter German. I appreciate the various methods Michael uses to present the rules, the exceptions, the concepts, the logic, and the practical use of the grammar. The crime story translation process is brilliant and I highly recommend it for someone who is a visual learner. Some of his mnemonic devices are just brilliant. Thank you.

It was a great idea to convert smarterGerman course into an online format. I found it very intuitive and balanced (not too easy nor too hard). Besides, it's being much easier to keep me on track and to avoid procrastination. Still amazed about the amount of attention and care Michael puts into it.

When I decided to learn German, I previewed many different online grammar courses. Most of them were fine for tourists, but lacked in learning how to speak fluent and correct German. I took advantage of smarterGerman free article course and I was hooked. Michael and Margareth provide a beautiful structure in which to learn. It is not overwhelming and you slowly build upon previous topics. There are tricks they teach that help with remembering genders and learning how to speak in complete sentences.The course has you read, write, and listen. It is easy to ask questions and responses are fast and clear. Despite it being an online course, it really does feel like I have real life teachers. It's obvious they care about me as a student and want me to succeed. They have made a beautiful language even more stunning and accessible at the same time.I hope someday someone asks me where to go to learn German. I know exactly where I will send them. It's worth every penny - and more.

I am so happy and grateful to find Micheal website. His method is very engaging and make learning language also fun. His technique in remembering articles is amazing. I would highly recommend his online course to anyone who wants to learn German without spending hours of time in different lessons. Keep up the awesome work Micheal :-)

SmarterGerman easily fulfilled all my expectations and with its quality gave me the opportunity to go even beyond my initial goal which was to reach B1 level German in three months. It’s simple yet very effective way to learn a language. I enjoyed the materials tailored to provide information in a way that is clear and easy to remember, making learning process simpler and more enjoyable while providing constant feeling of progression. Along with great materials the passion and dedication of sG tutors were simply amazing! It has been a great journey. Thank you!